TheDarkKnight Tagged Articles at Cinematical
The Geek Beat: Will Costumed Vigilantes Ever Get Oscar Gold?
Filed under: Awards », Fandom », Oscar Watch », The Geek Beat »
The last thing anyone wants to read on this glorious Tuesday is another Oscar retrospective. But I just now thought of it, and it's cool to be fashionably late even to a discussion, right? Don't answer that.
One of my biggest disappointments about the 2010 nominations was seeing Watchmen shut out of anything to do with costume or art design, particularly the former. I'm a fan of Michael Wilkinson's work, and I think he's done an amazing job bringing the outlandish costumes of books such as 300 and Watchmen to life. But while Sandy Powell offended everyone else with her bored win for The Young Victoria, I actually appreciated that she dedicated it to "the costume designers that don't do movies about dead monarchs or glittery musicals" because I thought well, hey, she means men and women like Wilkinson. Because not only do costume designers on, in Powell's words, "the contemporary films and the low budget ones" rarely get enough recognition, the costume designers of sci-fi, fantasy, and comic book movies never do.
And I do mean never. While I wasn't surprised to see Wilkinson shut out, I had this vague idea that the Oscars of the deep dark past had recognized geek genre movies such as Batman or Star Wars, and that all those costumes worshiped by cosplayers and costumers had been admired and rewarded by industry professionals too. Shockingly, that's not the case. The further I dug, the more snubs I uncovered. I even widened my criteria to more mainstream fantasy such as the Harry Potter series. The Oscar gold is very, very scarce.
Fan Rant: I'm Done with the Oscars
Filed under: Awards », Obits », Fan Rant »
I say it year after year, but I think I'm finally done with the Oscars. I know, it'll never really happen. Not only because I write about movies professionally and the Academy Awards are a necessary part of this job but also for the same reason that I'll never quit messing with that scab on my arm or slowing down to stare at highway accidents. I may be a film cynic, but I'm also a film masochist, and some of why I keep watching the Oscars is just part of my addiction to the pain of being a cinephile in the 21st century.
Of course, it's also part of the tradition. Like all of you, I grew up an Oscar zealot. I tuned in annually as if it were a yearly religious event, like midnight mass at Christmas or something. And I can't pull on the perspective cloak or go back in time to determine if the ceremony has truly gotten worse or if I'm simply less tolerant of decisions made by both the Academy and the telecast's producers in my old age. But I will say this much: to me, at this moment in my life, I do believe the marginalization of the deceased who didn't receive a lengthy tribute as did John Hughes is far more despicable than Rob Lowe grinding with Snow White 21 years ago.
Comparing the All-Time Box Office Heavyweights
Filed under: Box Office »
OK. So James Cameron's Avatar is the all-time box office champion, and even if you adjust for inflation, it's still the #15 all-time box office champion, which is nothing to sneeze at. Everyone knows that it displaced the former #1 hit, Titanic, which was also by Cameron. But what was #1 before Titanic? Or before that? What makes all these films similar, or different? I thought it would be fun to go back over the all-time box office champs and pick them apart to see what makes them tick.
One of the very first blockbusters was The Birth of a Nation (1915), which apparently earned about $10 million back on its $100,000 budget. That was big money in those days, but that movie no longer appears on the top 100 "adjusted for inflation" chart. The next big blockbuster was Gone with the Wind (1939), which -- adjusted for inflation -- is still #1. It's a genuine phenomenon, and it still has the power to wow audiences, although it's that high on the list mainly because it was re-released every few years, earning a tidy profit on top of its profit. Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1956) and William Wyler's Ben-Hur (1959) both came close, but didn't quite make the record.
Their Best Role: Maggie Gyllenhaal in 'Secretary'
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Independent », Romance », Artisan », Lionsgate Films »
Let me begin with a confession: I have not been able to stand Maggie Gyllenhaal as an actress for years. I'm not sure where I got turned off. Maybe Casa de los Babys. Maybe later, with Happy Endings. I definitely couldn't take her in SherryBaby, and by the time she showed up in The Dark Knight, I had decided she was the worst part of most movies in which she appears.
Basically I feel she tries too hard in really dramatic performances. I also think she's completely ill-fit for characters with power or demanding professions, such as Rachel Dawes in TDK. Yet I also didn't wholly believe her right for the flakier, manic-pixie-dream-girl type she plays in Stranger Than Fiction. Honestly, I had some hope for her after seeing her in World Trade Center, but maybe it was just that I find her to be a good crier. And more tolerable when she's not in the lead.
This was not always the case. My introduction to her was with John Waters' Cecil B. Demented. I despised the movie, but I developed a crush on this young actress playing the Satanist obsessed with avant-garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger. And I continued to think she was fine in small roles in Donnie Darko and Adaptation. So it was pretty upsetting after eight years for her to go from being the best thing in a movie I hated to the worst thing in a movie I loved.
Pitch of the Day: 'Superman Returns 2'
Filed under: Classics », Comedy », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Comic/Superhero/Geek », Remakes and Sequels »
Today's pitch is sort of a last chance grab at any possibility of Warner Bros. not rebooting the Superman franchise yet again and instead letting Bryan Singer, or someone else, simply move forward from the underrated Superman Returns. I'm sure to be in my own boat here, especially since all the geeks are celebrating Christopher Nolan's reported involvement with version 3.0 of the superhero on film (if we're talking theatrical releases, isn't this version 5.0? And if we're talking all adaptations it's like version 10.6.2). Still, I'm going to once again make the case for...Superman Returns 2
Of course it wouldn't be titled that. What an awkward title. But my point is that I'd like to see Singer's installment get a follow-up rather than another reboot. As I noted in my take on the pseudo Mr. & Mrs. Smith reboot yesterday, and as some commenters agreed, sequels are usually more desirable than reboots. I know, go on about Nolan's Batman franchise reboot. Well, a sequel can go in a new direction, too, without the lame connotations of a reboot. Or, it can be a combo like Singer's movie was. Superman Returns continued the original Superman series while also rebooting it. I'll admit I'm a wee bit torn on the idea, as I'd like to see Brandon Routh return but I could certainly do without Kate Bosworth -- though, if Nolan can switch it up with the female lead in his Batman films, they can do it with this, as well.
'Star Trek 2' Will Focus on the Villain
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Paramount », Scripts », Comic/Superhero/Geek », Remakes and Sequels »
With only a week to go before the Oscar nominations are announced, Star Trek seems less and less a candidate for one of the ten Best Picture slots. But there's still a good chance the film's script, by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, will be honored with a Best Adapted Screenplay nod. After all, the duo is nominated for a Writers Guild Award. But does it really matter what honors the first film receives? Aren't we all just looking forward to the future, interested about what the sequel will be like? Yes, this is why we're ignoring the majority of what Orci and Kurtzman had to say at a WGA nominees screening of Star Trek last week in order to focus on what little tidbits of info they spilled about Star Trek 2 (or whatever it will be called). They don't seem to really know what the sequel will entail yet, so there wasn't much to divulge. Orci admitted they're still discussing whether or not the film should pick up directly after the first film or take place much later, for instance.
One thing that's for certain, however, is that it won't be a remake of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Yet it will be similar to that much revered installment in that it will be concentrated on its villain. Check out the exact quote after the jump.
Oscar Discuss: 'Avatar' vs. 'The Dark Knight'
Filed under: Awards », Oscar Watch »
When The Dark Knight was left off the Oscar lists last year, the cries of injustice were heard loud and far. The Academy is biased. Who did the Weinsteins buy off? How many dirty pictures of AMPAS members does Stephen Daldry possess to get three director nods for three films? How could this have happened? Could it happen again? Well just four months after the gravelly growl heard round the film world, here came the Academy with an announcement.
Ten.
That's right. For the first time since 1943, the Oscars are going to have ten nominations for Best Picture instead of the usual five. "Having 10 Best Picture nominees is going to allow Academy voters to recognize and include some of the fantastic movies that often show up in the other Oscar categories, but have been squeezed out of the race for the top prize," said Academy President Sid Ganis. In other words, no longer will films as lauded as The Dark Knight get screwed. Gone are the days that animated films would be discriminated against. At least not those labeled with Pixar. It's the reason that three successful science fiction films are in legitimate contention for a Best Picture nomination this year. Only one of them serves up comparison to The Dark Knight though. In the numbers, not your particular preference over which film is a masterpiece of genre filmmaking and which has blue people in it. Put those personal opinions aside for the moment and ask yourself this question: If there were still only five nominees for Best Picture, would Avatar have been this year's Dark Knight?
New 'Inception' Trailer Still Brings The Weird
Filed under: Action », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Fandom », Movie Marketing », Trailers and Clips »
We've been waiting for it, and here it is! Apple has unveiled the second trailer for Christopher Nolan's Inception, which definitely gives us a bit more than the first -- including the first clues as to what this sucker is actually about -- but remains restrained, dazzling us with strange visions of sideways people and a determined Leonardo DiCaprio. Based on what we've already learned and what we see here, it appears the film will follow people who have somehow figured out a way to hijack the human mind and enter the space in order to steal an idea. Hence all the trippy slo-mo shots of people falling sideways and fighting in mid-air -- it would appear as if Nolan has created his own Matrix-like world inside the human mind, and unleashed his powerful ensemble cast to do his dirty work.
Starring DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard and Ellen Page, Inception is slowly climbing to the top of everyone's most anticipated movie list for 2010. Here, Nolan follows up The Dark Knight with a film that once again looks dark, grimy and sinister with a steel-like shine. I'm sure others will cite early script leaks and try to piece together the entire plot for you, but I kinda like how we don't know every inch of this sucker yet. Might be better if we let her simmer for awhile over low heat before we throw in everything but the kitchen sink. After all, based on what we see here, Nolan has definitely cooked up something tasty.
Check out he trailer below. What do you think?
The Best of the Decade: Sequels
Filed under: Fandom », Remakes and Sequels », Lists », Best/Worst »
Oh, the dreaded sequel. For a while, it was the loathed S-word -- an inevitable drop in quality, almost always revealing an increasing degree of cinematic laziness. But then came the aughts. Not only did we find the S-word replaced with the dreaded R-word (remake/reboot ... take your pick), but we also got a slice of something good. This decade brought some impressive sequels that challenged the well-established notion that continuing a story and revisiting beloved characters would be a bad thing. And now, as the decade wraps up, it's time to rank them.
Compiling the best sequels of the decade is not the most harrowing task out there. My fellow writers have that honor, shuffling through hundreds of films to pick out a few mere handfuls, but the sequel list does elicit questions. For example: What do you do when you desperately want a comedy sequel to be on the list, but you really don't like the best choice of the bunch? Should you consider the film's box office success? What about installments in a series? There's so much to consider...
What follows are the best and most successful sequels and series installments (they must have love here!) that the aughts have brought us. Of course, this is the opinion of one mere writer, so dig in, and as always, be sure to comment with your own picks.
The Best of the Decade: The Comic Book Flicks
Filed under: Fandom », Comic/Superhero/Geek », Lists », Best/Worst »
Trying to rank the best comic flicks of the decade is a surprisingly tough task. I've approached it with all the enthusiasm Hester Prynne must have shown walking to the scaffold. It's not because I don't love discussing the past ten years of the genre, but because I hate ranking films. It puts me into knots of indecision. If I could, I would rank things in a sort of Venn diagram – Iron Man overlaps Batman Begins which overshadows Spider-Man.
But Venn diagrams are impossible to post, and the end of the decade demands lists. So please, take this as one humble writer's list, and use it to jump-start your own. To keep myself sane, I'm leaving off adaptations such as A History of Violence and Road to Perdition. They were based on graphic novels, and they certainly elevated the art of comic adaptation to a whole new level, but that's precisely the problem. Trying to rank Perdition against X2: X-Men United feels like a disservice to both films, and a cheesy way to flesh out the list.
So, don't think of the exclusion of American Splendor, Road to Perdition, Ghost World, Persepolis, and A History of Violence something negative. They're excellent films. They prove what rich material is often contained within a mocked genre. But I would rather think of these films as literary adaptations that belong in dramatic categories. Even that implies they're "better" than superhero tales, which I suppose is true to some extent, but also unfair. They hit us in different ways, and appeal to us on different levels. Asking Tony Stark and Marjane Satrapi to compete just because they're both illustrated is just wrong. But your mileage may vary. If you can resolve the conflict, I applaud you, and am anxious to see how you rank them.
Now, on to the rankings -- and you don't know how I longed for more time to re-watch every selection.
Has Chris Evans Won Captain America's Shield?
When Netflix Isn't Enough
Full-Length 'Predators' Trailer Debuts
Frankenstein is 100 Years Old! Watch His First Movie Now!
Bryan Singer May Direct 'X-Men 4' and 'Wolverine 2'
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